July Roses

My apologies for coming in late with my monthly rose post. Summer just seems to fly by in a blink of an eye. I can't believe that we are having already the 17th of August. Anyway, lets have a look back at the roses that were flowering last month.

July has been a notoriously difficult month for growing roses in my garden over the last couple of years. It is simply too hot here in San Diego inland for the roses to thrive and bloom well and I never seem to be able to keep up with all the deadheading, watering, and fertilizing that is needed to satisfy them.

This July many of my roses were between their second and third flush already. So far I was better than last year with fertilizing the roses, which means I did it more on a regular basis and it has paid off. Last year I had only two flushes on many roses whereas this year I seem to get at least three or even four on most of my repeat flowering varieties. In my garden there seems to be more and more evidence that fertilizing the roses regularly is key to keep the bloom production going. Just feeding them once in spring is simply not enough for continous blooms way into autumn!

Following are some shots of the roses that were blooming in my garden in the last month:

'Belinda's Dream' was by far the most floriferous rose in my garden in July. 

This rose seems to like the heat that this month brings with it in our climate and the blooms look very pretty. 

'Irresistible' was gracing me with one of her perfect flowers. 

From my Hybrid Perpetual roses 'Grandmother's Hat' was the only one, which was able to flower in the heat. The blooms crisp quickly at the edges, though. In general I am getting the impression that this class of roses is not best suited for our Southern California climate. 

The soft pink blooms of 'Scepter'd Isle' are always special to me.

'Moonstone', a Hybrid Tea, produces certainly some of the most beautiful blooms out of all of my roses. 

It likes the heat and flowers well, but it continuous to mildew like crazy in my no-spray garden.

The foliage looks really bad for that reason and I am thinking of getting rid of this rose,...

...but because of the pretty blooms I didn't have the heart to shovel prune it. 

'The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild' has incredible lovely flowers. I grow this rose still in a two gallon container only, where it can't develop its full potential, but so far it looks very promising.

'Heritage' is not too long ago planted into the ground, but so far I am rather underwhelmed by this rose.

It blooms take on a muddy, washed out, pale apricot color and shatter very quickly in the heat, the bush mildews a lot and it throws out the famous octopus canes that some David Austin roses are known to produce in a warm climate. Maybe not a keeper, but I will give it some more time to get established.

'Bewitched' is showing off the perfect Hybrid Tea bloom form. 

As in June 'Chandos Beauty' was putting on a show in July as well. 

Each bloom is perfect and...

...they come with a quite strong fragrance.

'Chandos Beauty' is a good cut rose...

... and flowers with the warm apricot center just make my heart sing.

I haven't shown 'Lavender Crystal' for quite a while.

I believe that this rose has stayed so tiny because it is growing in a small container.

Nonetheless the flowers are quite something with their pale cool lavender-blue color.

Another rose that I didn't show photo off for a long time is the Mini-Flora 'Overnight Scentsation'.

As the name indicates the fragrance of this rose is quite strong and lovely.

'Marie Pavie' is blooming in the heat with no complains, but...

... in these temperature the flowers are spent pretty quickly.

One rose that I find very interesting is 'Cymbaline', one of the earlier David Austin shrub roses, bred in 1983. It is supposed to bloom in a light pink color, but the heat brings out more brownish-apricot tones in this rose. It comes with a strong myrrh fragrance.

This photo is taken of the same flower as above but later in the day. You can see that the color has changed from this dusty, brownish-apricot to a more warm clear apricot. I find these subtle changes in the coloration quite fascinating.

Before I end, I would like to thank all of you, who left a comment on my last two posts. I can hardly find the time to blog anymore, so I made the decision to rather work on my next post than replying to comments. I hope you can understand that. But even though I didn't respond anymore, please know, that I love reading what you have to say and that I appreciate your comments very much! In the future I will try to continue to answer to comments, which contain questions and hopefully chime in here and there from time to time.

See you in the garden!

Christina